


Strawberries

by Ally_Oop



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Banter, Caring Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, POV Merlin (Merlin), Short & Sweet, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-02-22 20:34:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23766691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ally_Oop/pseuds/Ally_Oop
Summary: Merlin tries to give Arthur strawberries with breakfast and learns that royalty are not permitted to eat unprepared fruit. Of course, Merlin decides to ignore that.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 62
Kudos: 475





	Strawberries

Arthur eyed his plate suspiciously and glanced up at Merlin with narrowed eyes and furrowed eyebrows.  
“Is there a problem?” Merlin asked warily after a second or two of silence. He was preparing for a lecture or a slap or something of that nature, recognizing the tenseness in Arthur’s jaw and the dangerously steady glare as the signs of an incoming tantrum.

“What is THIS?” Arthur demanded, holding up a strawberry. Merlin almost laughed out loud, but knew that was a horrible idea with Arthur in his current state.

“It’s a strawberry, sire.” He answered as seriously as he could manage.

“You’ve given me strawberries.”

“How perceptive of you.”

“You’ve given me JUST strawberries.”

“There’s far more than just strawberries on that plate; do you need help looking?” Merlin offered helpfully.

Arthur groaned, visibly frustrated. He made wild gestures to his plate as if the issue were obvious, and grew even angrier when Merlin’s utterly confused expression remained unchanged.

“The strawberries are ALONE!”

“I’m... sure they’ll find someone?”

“MERLIN-!”

He sidestepped a biscuit that was hurled at his head easily and squinted at Arthur intently.

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Are you really THIS much of an idiot?”

“I could not be less clear what you’re talking about.”

Arthur hesitated, coming as a considerable relief to Merlin, who had been preparing himself to dodge more food items.

“Can you... genuinely not see the problem?” Arthur asked slowly, voice a lot gentler.

“I genuinely cannot see the problem.”

“This wasn’t an insult?”

“What?”

Arthur sighed, frustrated. His features had softened and he let himself fall into a neutral expression. Finally, he gestured to the berries and shrugged.

“Unprepared fruit is only for the lower class.”

“You’re joking.” Merlin laughed.

“This was a serious breach of etiquette and if my father or anyone else got wind of it they’d have you executed.”

“Are you being serious? I can’t tell.”

“He wouldn’t execute you.” Arthur admitted. And, as an afterthought. “Probably.”

“I feel safer already.”

“Merlin, just-“ Arthur sighed. “I personally don’t care. I’m only trying to avoid unnecessary problems for you down the line.” He paused for a moment, thinking, and fixed Merlin with a suspicious look. 

“How did you even manage to get strawberries? They’re not exactly just lying around.”

“I found them growing near the stables and I figured I’d bring you some.” Merlin shrugged, a confused smile stretching across his face.

“Do you... like strawberries?” Arthur asked slowly.

“Me? I love them! I used to eat them all the time as a kid.”

“Then why would you give them to me? Why not just eat them yourself?” Arthur prodded with increasing accusation in his voice. 

”Ah, you’ve caught me. The strawberries were to distract you from the fact I’ve poisoned your steak.”

“That’s not funny, Merlin.”

“Look, if you didn’t want them, you could’ve just told me from the start. Just give them to me.” 

Merlin made to grab one, but Arthur snatched his plate away protectively at superhuman speeds. A surprised smile grew on Merlin’s face.

“S’pose not.” He grinned and retracted his hand.

“I’ll eat them. But only out of a sense of obligation, of course.”

Merlin put his hands up defensively and took a step back, still grinning.

“Right. Enjoy your obligatory strawberries, then.”

“I will. And don’t let this happen again, alright?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Merlin was, in fact, dreaming of it. 

The next morning, when Merlin brought breakfast, he had filled the plate with strawberries, leaving only about a third of the space for the real breakfast. He set the plate down in front of Arthur as if everything was normal, and took several steps backwards as a precaution. The prince’s eyes traveled from the plate to Merlin’s face, and he offered a fake smile that more resembled a grimace.

“Merlin?” He asked sweetly.

“Yes, sire?” Merlin replied.

“What the hell is THIS?” Arthur picked one of the strawberries up by a leaf and dangled it in front of Merlin’s face.

“Have you forgotten what they’re called again, sire?”

“Why is it,” Arthur began, exasperated, “that you only call me ‘sire’ when you’re deliberately trying to irritate me?”

“Seems to work quite well, sire.”

“I can’t fathom why it is that you are ten times as unbearable when you actually address me properly.” Arthur mused. Then, seemingly remembering that he was meant to be angry at Merlin, he forced his face into a glare. 

“You still haven’t explained yourself.”

“You seemed to enjoy them yesterday, despite your best efforts.” Merlin pointed out.

“Well, yes, but it isn’t-!”

“I found more this morning. Would you prefer I eat them all myself?”

“I’ll eat them.” Arthur said quickly. Merlin grinned.

“That’s what I thought.” 

Over the next few days, Arthur found strawberries on his plate every single morning, and every single morning he denounced them as he ate in order to preserve his dignity. Merlin could see right through him, of course, but mercifully decided not to point it out.

One morning, however, there were no strawberries with Arthur’s breakfast. The prince eyed the plate hungrily as Merlin set it in front of him, and the excitement quickly turned to a childlike disappointment when he noticed the distinct lack of forbidden fruit. He glanced back up at Merlin, who was milling about the room and collecting clothes to wash. 

“Is this some kind of joke?” Arthur demanded.

Merlin’ straightened up and fixed the prince with a confused expression that he had been carefully cultivating for this exact moment. “What?”

“You haven’t brought me any strawberries!” Arthur gestured to his plate indignantly.

Merlin clasped a hand over his heart in mock surprise. 

“Unprepared fruit is for the lower class! I can’t very well give strawberries to the future king!” 

Arthur swelled up like an angry cat at this, and his mouth opened to yell but no sound came out.

“The bush doesn’t have infinite berries, you know.” Merlin pointed out. Arthur glowered at him, still not responding. Merlin rolled his eyes. He wondered what people would do if they saw their king act like this. Other than laugh hysterically, of course. Perhaps they’d stage a coup.

“Quit your sulking. You have perfectly good bread right there!” Merlin stopped collecting clothes momentarily to watch Arthur, grinning. 

Arthur groaned and picked up his bread, revealing three strawberries that had been tucked neatly underneath it.

“Very funny.” He drawled.

“Now where did those come from?” Merlin wondered aloud.

“There’s still only three.” Arthur said with a hint of disappointment in his voice that he attempted to disguise with indignation.

“Now you’re getting greedy, sire.” Merlin said. He let Arthur fume for a moment before producing three more berries from his pocket and tossing them to Arthur, whose face lit up immediately.

“They wouldn’t fit under the bread.” Merlin admitted.

Arthur mumbled something about Merlin being an idiot through a mouthful of strawberries.

For the next month this became their usual routine; every morning Arthur would have strawberries with his breakfast and every evening Merlin would venture out to find new ones to bring him the next morning. It worked wonders on Arthur’s temper and reduced the amount of arguments tenfold, but when Merlin discovered one evening that there didn’t seem to be any strawberries within a ten mile radius of Camelot, he feared it would all fall apart. The next morning, he paused outside of Arthur’s door, collecting himself. Resigning himself to a morning of dodging thrown objects and deflecting insults, he stepped inside.

“Before I give this to you,” Merlin began, easing the door shut behind him. “I just want you to know I looked everywhere, and there weren’t any strawberries left. None that I could find, anyways.”

“Oh, I know.” Arthur said easily. 

“I really did look everywhere but it seems as though- excuse me?” Merlin nearly dropped the plate, and looked at Arthur with wide eyes. “You know?”

“I know there’s no strawberries. You don’t need to apologize for that.” Arthur shrugged. “That isn’t your fault.”

“How do you-?”

“Oh, that’s easy.” Arthur reached beneath the table and produced the largest basket Merlin had ever seen, which was nearly overflowing with strawberries. Arthur heaved the thing onto the table and gave Merlin a genuinely excited smile. “I picked them all.”

“Bit selfish of you, don’t you think?” Merlin laughed in disbelief, watching Arthur’s expression for any hint of a joke. He couldn’t find one.

“Oh, it would be, but they’re not for me.”

“What?”

Arthur shrugged. 

“You said you liked strawberries, so I got you some.”

“You got all those for me.” Merlin said numbly, not quite believing it yet.

“Is it really so hard to believe that I wanted to do something nice for you?”

“Yes, actually.”

Arthur gestured to the basket.  
“They’re all yours.”

Merlin carefully picked a berry off of the top of the pile, giving Arthur a suspicious look.  
“Am I meant to take this as an insult?”

“Naturally.”

Merlin grinned.  
“Thanks.”

Arthur nodded, and set to work on his own breakfast.

“Of course, now I feel bad.” Merlin said, after a moment, turning to face him.

“And why is that?”

“Here you are being civil, and I really have poisoned your steak this time.”

“Very funny, Merlin.”

**Author's Note:**

> I’m gonna level with you all: this isn’t my best. I’m going through a lot right now and this was in my drafts; I wanted to edit it further and make it actually go somewhere but I just don’t have the motivation right now. If you’d like to take the concept and make it mean something then please go ahead! I got this idea because I read somewhere that medieval royalty wouldn’t eat unprepared fruit and I really couldn’t be bothered to check if it was true or not; I just thought it was funny. 
> 
> Again, I’m really sorry for the lack of quality but I hope I’ve done enough to make you smile once or twice. Have a lovey day 💕


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